I’ve hit a pre-Christmas ‘OMG I haven’t done any serious work for weeks’ panic. It’s the downside of knowing that I have very few deadlines at this time of year, and I have been kidding myself that I don’t actually have any work. WRONG.
It’s been, mostly, fun… although the scattering of my brother’s ashes in the sea at Hayling Island on what would have been his 59th birthday was a tear jerker. I also found myself staying in the top floor, corner room of a seafront hotel in Eastbourne the night Storm Angus hit the South Coast. Suffice to say I got no sleep thanks to rattling sash windows and shaking walls, but the sight of the churning sea was unforgettable.
I’d gone to Eastbourne for a concert in memory of my mother, performed by the Aanna Colls Singers. The music was fabulous, and when Aanna sung a piece, the words to which were written for her by mum, that was both me and my great friend Katie gone. A very bracing and very, very breezy walk along the seafront, topped off by a night cap with my sister-in-law and her family, and our equanimity was restored…
I haven’t been on a total skive. There were the usual writing commissions, the launch of a new website for Coromandel Crewel, and a trip to London to visit a PR company which I might at some stage do some work for. Guy, who instigated this meeting, treated me to a delicious and entertaining lunch – the image of an owl wearing a tweed cap, with a claw literally through his hand, will never leave me :-0
I had a visit from Neil, the absolute bedrock of Manners Media website success. He and his son, Tom, came over for a catch up, a bit of sea air and, of course, chips! I then spent last Saturday with the charming Jacksons – why am I’m pretending this was work-related? Ben is a total star raising awareness about Rockingham International and Blaston Show as a presenter for BBC Radio Leicester, but a trip to Burnham Deepdale Christmas Market followed by scrumptious slow cooked beef in his and Hellen’s lovely holiday cottage – nothing to do with work there.
Work did take me on an overnight stay to web client Ros Canter‘s. I was there to introduce a hopeful new sponsor to Ros (all still under wraps), and under any circumstances it would have been spoiling, but given I’d been without a bathroom or oven for over 2 weeks, a ‘proper meal’ and long soak in a bath was heaven (I have been washing, I hasten to add – nipping round to my very accommodating neighbours).
Talking of which, the end is in sight re the builders. By Friday all should be pretty much finished. Most importantly I will have both a bath and a shower. The cats barely speak to me now there is underfloor heating in ‘their’ room – so Pig no longer serenades me in the early hours which makes whatever it cost cheap at half the price. Anyone in Norfolk, I can 100% recommend Jason Palmer and his team – really great guys to have making a mess in your house, I’ll almost (not quite) miss them! Happy Days.
Whilst not wanting to end on a sad note, one of the kindest, most perceptive and interesting men I have met died last week. John Swire, father of a close friend, has been a joy to know over the last 30 years. His ‘how a man should flirt’ dinner conversation with me when I was barely out of my teens set the standard – which, to be honest, has never been met!